Sex abuse victim starts Web site support group

Wednesday

A man who says a convicted pedophile teacher sexually abused him at his exclusive Cambridge private school in the 1980s has launched an Internet campaign to help other potential victims.

A man who says a convicted pedophile teacher sexually abused him at his exclusive Cambridge private school in the 1980s has launched an Internet campaign to help other potential victims.

Daniel Weinreb said Edward Washburn — his seventh-grade English teacher at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols — sexually abused him from 1983 to 1985. Washburn, who taught at the school for more than two decades, pleaded guilty to molesting two children in 1987.

Weinreb believes Washburn could have abused more students and created www.openingbbnminds.com last week as a virtual support group after he ran into dead ends trying to convince school administrators to help connect alumni and potential sexual abuse victims of Washburn.

“I wanted them to know that if they had been abused, they could contact someone … that they had done nothing wrong and shouldn’t be ashamed,” Weinreb told the Chronicle. “The idea is — if there are survivors out there — I would organize a retreat or a one-day workshop.”

Weinreb said he found it helpful when he attended a retreat for sexual abuse victims in October.

Washburn’s high profile case created a media firestorm in the 1980s. In a controversial move, the judge only gave Washburn community service for the crimes and the school was also criminally prosecuted for breaking the law by not immediately reporting the abuse to authorities, according to David E. Meier, the former prosecutor for the case. The school later paid $70,000 to settle a civil lawsuit for breaking the law, according to past reports in MetroWest Daily News.

Weinreb believes there could be more than two victims because Washburn was known to socialize with students outside of school in Cambridge and take students to his summerhouse in New Hampshire.

“Now we couldn’t prosecute him for crimes in New Hampshire because we didn’t have jurisdiction over New Hampshire,” said Meier, a 20-year veteran prosecutor who now works at Boston law firm Todd & Weld.

Meier refused to speculate whether there could be more victims because he is still bound to keep the grand jury proceedings of the case a secret.

Washburn told the Chronicle he hadn’t seen the Web site.

“I have no idea. I haven’t worked there in over 20 years,” said Washburn when reached by telephone Monday.

Washburn, who now works as the studio director for the local office of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic in East Cambridge, would not comment on his past conviction or allegations he abused more children while at the school.

“I have no comment, please,” said Washburn.

Since he’s launched the Web site, Weinreb said 40 people — not all of them claiming to be victims of abuse — have contacted him and been in support of his Web site and mission.

School officials have been less receptive, according to Weinreb.

“Daniel is a valued alumnus and member of the BB&N community,” said Rebecca Upham, head of the school, in a released statement. “We are all united in our hope that he can heal and have offered to assist him directly in this regard. Since Daniel contacted us, we have repeatedly sought to be as responsive as possible to his requests for assistance. In considering Daniel’s requests on his Web site, it is my job as head of school to respond in a way that most appropriately balances the past, present and future responsibilities of the school and our obligations to all members of our community.”

In a letter dated Jan. 18, Upham told Weinreb that she believes alumni and parents want to move on from the “dark and disturbing chapter” in the school’s history and declines to help in his outreach efforts to contact other potential victims. In the letter, Upham maintains the school already sent a letter to parents seeking to assist potential victims in 1987, during the immediate aftermath of the abuse scandal. She also offers Weinreb $5,000 to pay for counseling and hinting that she believes Weinreb is preparing to sue the school, directs him to only speak to school officials through the school’s lawyers in the future.

Weinreb recently retained Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney famed for his work representing victims of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, to help him navigate conversations with the school on the sensitive topic. Weinreb said he has no current plans to sue the school and didn’t ask for the $5,000 school officials offered him.

“It’s very important to Daniel that no child be sexually molested and that Buckingham Browne & Nichols help victims obtain at least some closure for sexual abuse,” said Garabedian. “Daniel is just trying to do what is best for children and victims of sexual abuse.”

Weinreb said he hopes school officials change their minds about refusing to help him contact other alumni about his outreach campaign.

Said Weinreb, “I think a very important first step is to help other survivors get in touch with me.”

Cambridge Chronicle

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